The Eternal Light of Egypt

What do you think of when you think of the Albany Institute of History & Art? Obviously, first, their magnificent collection of Hudson River School paintings. After that, many might say the wealth of regional artifacts, the great traveling exhibits, the collection of stoves or the Academy Award for 1931’s Bad Girl. We’re betting, however, that the second-most famous exhibit at the AIHA is the Egyptian room—and the mummies it contains.

The Eternal Light of Egypt: The Photography of Sarite Sanders, which opens this weekend, ties in nicely with the mummies. Photographer Sarite Sanders has taken a series of 40 images that “recall early 19th-century travel photography that captured for Western viewers the awe and majesty of Pharaonic Egypt.”

The Eternal Light of Egypt: The Photography of Sarite Sanders opens Saturday (Jan. 16) and runs through June 13 at the Albany Institute of History & Art (125 Washington Ave., Albany). There will be a free artist’s gallery talk on Feb. 5 at 6 PM, during the monthly 1st Friday celebration. For more info, call 463-4478.

Sophie Shao and Friends

Winner of the XII Tchaikovsky Competition in 2002, cellist Sophie Shao has been acclaimed a “musician with a superior sense of style, great finesse and emotion.” This weekend, she’s bringing some friends to Union College to perform string quintets by Mendelssohn, Mozart and Brahms.

The lineup for Sunday’s performance will be Shao (cello), Pamela Frank and Arnaud Sussmann (violins), and Mark Holloway and Lily Francis (violas).

Sophie Shao and Friends will perform Sunday (Jan. 17) at 3 PM at the Union College Memorial Chapel (Union College, Schenectady). Admission is $25, $10 students. For more info, call 388-6080.

 

Chris Scruggs

To say that Chris Scruggs was preordained for greatness as a singer-songwriter would simply be redundant in light of his surname. The Nashville native was born into the music industry and raised on a tour bus with his mother Gail Davies, and made a name for himself as a teenager fronting alt-country pioneers BR549. As a solo artist, the Washington Post has described him as “part John Lennon pop and part Milton Brown western swing, with a little bit of White Stripes edginess.”

Anthem, Scruggs’ latest, draws a nice line from the country lineage he was born into, through the contemporary stylings of some of his collaborators, M. Ward, Neko Case and Justin Townes Earle.

Chris Scruggs will play the Ale House (680 River St., Troy) on Sunday (Jan. 17) at 8 PM. Tickets are $10. Call 272-9740 for more info.